Many people had tried to convince us that wooden boats are hard to build. Our “renovation” of Mahdee has been described by others as a complete rebuild. Therefore, I consider myself almost an experienced wooden boat builder. It really isn’t that hard, so I have decided to distill everything I now know about wooden boats into an 8-step how-to.

Step 1: Buy lots and lots of big boards/timbers. Big is key here. If it takes 6 grown men or a crane to lift one board, you are on the right track. You will want several types of wood and the types should be the most exotic possible even if that means spending lots of money. We all know how important bragging rights are if you are stranded in a yacht club some day.

Step 2: Cut up all the boards/timbers into little pieces. If your neighbors accuse you of operating a toothpick factory you are on the right track. Of course, some pieces will be bigger than toothpicks, but they will be in the minority and the casual observer probably won’t notice them.

Step 3: Drill lots of holes in your pieces of boards. The more the better, and the holes should be of various sizes from barely visible to … well the biggest size will be limited by how thorough you were in step 2.

Step 4: Assemble the parts.

Step 5: Try to plug all the seams between the pieces made in step 2.

Step 6: Try to find and plug all of the holes drilled in step 3. If you think you have them all, drill some more holes, wait a few months and then see if you can find them. There must be way more holes than you can comprehend.

Step 7: Put boat in water and look for leaks caused by failure to complete steps 5 and 6.

Step 8: Have fun. This is the most important step because the whole purpose of owning a wooden boat is to enjoy it!